They Don't Play Hockey in Heaven: A Dream, A Team, and My Comeback Season [Hardcover]

Ken Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

"A riveting and often hilarious account." -The Hockey News

"Inspirational . . . colorful descriptions make this a fun read." -Los Angeles Times "One of the best sports books of the year." -Booklist

Ken Baker wanted nothing more than to play ice hockey with the pros-until a brain tumor cut his dreams short while in college. After surgery and several years of rehab, Baker, who in high school was a top prospect for the U.S. Olympic team, put his successful journalism career on hold to attempt the seemingly impossible: a comeback.

He moved away from his family to become the third-string goalie for the Bakersfield Condors, an AA-level minor-league team in the dusty oil town of Bakersfield, California. At the age of thirty-one, Baker became the oldest rookie in all of pro-hockey, facing 100-m.p.h. slap shots and long bus rides, hostile fans and cheap motel rooms, body bruises, and battle-worn teammates.

From his visit to an NHL training camp to his first nerve-rattled minutes as a pro, Baker joins the rookies who still dream of making it to the Show, the veterans long past their prime, and the obsessive fans who keep them going. When the season is over, Baker's pro-hockey adventure ends up teaching him nearly everything he will ever need to know about life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Eight years after his college hockey career ended and two years after a successful brain surgery, Baker, a writer for U.S. Weekly, decided to try to play professional hockey for the first time. After working out at recreational rinks, he made the jump to a low-level minor-league team as an emergency goalie, in the oil-town of Bakersfield, Calif., (surprisingly, a hockey hotbed), for a team willing to take him on in the name of research. In a style that is equal parts George Plimpton-gonzo and Rocky Balboa-triumphalism, the author spends much of the book chronicling the culture of the team and his intense desire to play on it. Indeed, he gets almost no ice time; the story derives its suspense not from the question "how he will play?" but the question "will they ever let him play?". Yet Baker's account maintains a powerful narrative thrust, thanks to the neat structure of a professional sports season and the author's appealing psychological candor. Baker also shows great range-the characters on his team are colorful and the descriptions of life at the lowest echelons of professional sports are as poignant as they are startling. Though he lets in a few cheap lines (he has a tendency toward the maudlin as well as toward locker-room and self-help clichés, and he mentions his brain tumor so often it starts to feel calculating), the narrative remains touching and surprisingly effective.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Hockey exerts a mesmerizing hold on its participants and fans, as exploits like Baker's attest. Once a highly touted high-school player, considered a strong possibility for the U.S. Olympic team, goalie Baker's pro hockey aspirations were forestalled during college by a brain tumor. After his recovery, the allure of the fast-paced hockey world surged within him again. He took a break from a budding journalism career to give hockey a last shot, joining the minor-league Bakersfield (California) Condors. And he was back in that strange but serene world between the pipes, blocking biscuit-sized pieces of hard rubber hurtling at him at speeds up to 100 mph. Ah, sports bliss! Baker's story conjures the spirit of another great tale of boisterous minor-league hockey, the movie Slap Shot, but possessed of the old-pro-in-the-minor-leagues charm of that classic baseball flick, Bull Durham. Better than celluloid by virtue of being a professional writer's true story, Baker's tale of an old goalie's last stab at playing in the NHL is one of the sports books of the year. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1st edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592281494
• ISBN-13: 978-1592281497
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,041,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great story!, October 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: They Don't Play Hockey in Heaven: A Dream, A Team, and My Comeback Season (Hardcover)

This book about life in minor league hockey is a really wonderful read. It's a fascinating combination of sports story and inner journey, told with just the right balance between excitement and introspection. There are lots of entertaining action moments in this book, but it also has its share of spiritual insights, although the author is not heavy-handed about them. I literally couldn't put this book down and ended up reading it cover-to-cover in one sitting. I heartily recommend it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true inspiration, September 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: They Don't Play Hockey in Heaven: A Dream, A Team, and My Comeback Season (Hardcover)

I could not put this book down. His determination to live his dream is a true inspiration. It tells us the ups and downs, the sacrifices he had to make to live that dream. As a goalie myself, I have to admit we are strange. Who else in their right mind would face men with razors on their feet, ready to to fire a vulcanized hockey puck at you as hard as they can.

I have dreams as well, and started playing goalie at the age of 45. After reading this book, in one sitting, I went out tonight and played the best game of my short career. It was my dream, but it pales in comparison to Ken's dream

The book also gives us an interesting "behind the locker room door" look at minor league hockey. But this is not a book just for hockey fans

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars They Don't Play Hockey in Heaven Review, October 13, 2003

By 

Steve Ricketts (Meadow Vista, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: They Don't Play Hockey in Heaven: A Dream, A Team, and My Comeback Season (Hardcover)

Ken Baker did a great job of captivating the reader's attention and holding it throughout. A great expose on minor league hockey and life in general. A motivating, moving and sincere story that will make you think, tear-up and follow your dreams.